Holy League

The Holy League was an anti-Ottoman alliance of Catholic Mediterranean powers that was created in 1538 and again in 1571 on the orders of the Pope. In its first incarnation, Pope Paul III assembled a league consisting of the Republic of Venice, the Duchy of Mantua, the Spanish Empire, Portugal, the Papal States, the Republic of Genoa, and the Knights of St. John, but this coalition was defeated at the 1538 Battle of Preveza, and it soon disbanded. In 1571, the Papal States, Spain, Venice, Genoa, and Malta re-formed the alliance, with the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchy of Savoy, the Duchy of Urbino, and the Duchy of Parma joining the newer league. This league was supposed to raise 200 galleys, 100 other ships, 50,000 infantry, 4,500 cavalry, and adequate artillery for a war against the Ottomans in the eastern Mediterranean, and the league emerged victorious over the Ottomans at the Battle of Lepanto, the largest naval battle in Western history since classical antiquity. The death of Pope Pius V in 1572 led to the alliance unraveling, and it was disbanded on 7 March 1573.